Servant of Messiah Ministries

Preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.

War of Lies

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Written by David Sacks - The war in Ukraine is based on lies — lies about how it started, how it’s going, and how it will end. We are told that Ukraine is winning when in fact it is losing. We are told that the war makes NATO stronger when in fact it is depleting it. We are told that Ukraine’s biggest problem is a lack of funds from the U.S. Congress when in fact the West can’t produce enough ammunition — a problem that will take years to fix. We are told that Russia is suffering greater casualties when in fact Ukraine is running out of soldiers — another problem money can’t fix. We are told that the world is with us when in fact the Global Majority believes U.S. policy is the height of folly.

We are told that there is no opportunity to make peace when in fact we have rejected multiple opportunities for a negotiated settlement. We are told that if Ukraine keeps fighting, it will improve its negotiating position when in fact the terms will only get much worse than what was already available and rejected.

Nevertheless the lies will succeed in dragging out the war. Congress will appropriate more funds. Russia will take more territory. Ukraine will mobilize more young men and women to feed into the meat grinder. Discontent will mount. Eventually there will be a crisis in Kiev and the Zelensky government will be toppled.

And then, when the war is finally lost, when the whole country lays in smoldering ruins on a funeral pyre of their own making, the liars will say “well we tried.” Having prevented any alternative, having smeared anyone who told the truth as puppets for the enemy, the liars will say “We did our best. We stood up to Putin.”

In fact, they will claim, we would have succeeded but for the fifth column of Putin apologists who stabbed the Ukrainians in the back. Then, having shifted blame and patted themselves on the back, they will blithely move on to the next war, as they moved onto Ukraine after their disasters in Afghanistan and Iraq. The lies are comprehensive — but they will work.

Ukraine is Important

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I remember the World Tomorrow TV show – filmed in Brussels –  The Message was "Pay attention to Europe!"  In the last 6 months,  more has happened to validate the warnings, than we have witnessed in the last 40 years.

Revelation talks of 10 kings or leaders that arise together to give their power collectively to one leader that will arise from what was historically the Holy Roman Empire.

REV. 17:12 “The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour.

REV. 17:13 “These have one purpose, and they give their power and authority to the beast.

REV. 17:17 “For God has put it in their hearts to execute His purpose by having a common purpose, and by giving their kingdom to the beast until the words of God will be fulfilled

Daniel 7 prophesies a ''fourth empire'' to produce ten kings and another king. The final king will speak blasphemous words against God and will wear out God's saints for three and a half years. However, the Most High will destroy him and establish God's everlasting kingdom.

So how do we get from here to there?

  • The USA and the EU must part ways – The EU/NATO we see today must fall apart. The new union will not include the USA
  • Ukraine will not win …The only question is how badly they will fail and who will sign the surrender documents.
  • The rise of Nationalism will create governments that serve their citizens FIRST as Europe sleepwalks into chaos.

THE US AND THE EU/NATO MUST PART WAYS

Europe has chosen to cut off its most reliable and economic source of energy. The ability to melt aluminum and steel created the industrial power Germany enjoyed for decades.  The lack of energy threatens the deindustrialization of Germany and Italy and France.

US promises to make up the shortfall with LNG shipments falling short and now costing 4X as much. Senior EU officials were frustrated over the Americans profiteering from war despite the Europeans being grappled with economic hardships due to Ukraine's conflict with Russia.

One senior EU official who was interviewed said that the US was the one country that was profiting the most from the conflict because “they are selling more gas and at higher prices, and because they are selling more weapons.”

To add insult to injury – the French and German governments are protesting the IAF bill just passed by Biden and Congress that subsidizes any electric car and green energy built in America.  Europe fears the American $369 billion package of subsidies and tax breaks to bolster U.S. green businesses, goes into effect Jan 1, 2023. The Europeans are angry with Washington's scheme that will encourage EU companies to shift production and investments from Europe.

To understand the scope of the problem – the huge BASF chemicals complex in Ludwigshafen chemicals uses as much energy as the country of Switzerland.  Aluminum and steel foundries once turned off and allowed to cool will take years to restart – if ever.

Meanwhile, States in the South of the USA are offering tax breaks – cheap energy, and lower labor costs to European industry to facilitate the De-industrialization and relocation to the USA.

Zinc, aluminum, and silicon production cuts (amounting to a staggering 50% of output) have already left consumers in Europe’s steel, auto and construction industries facing severe shortages.  steel plants in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, and other countries — more than two dozen in total — are beginning to slow down or entirely stop their output.

The fertilizer industry, which is heavily dependent on gas as a key feedstock as well as a source of power, is in even bigger trouble. More than two-thirds of production — around 30 plants — has already been halted. Food production next year will be greatly reduced in Europe.

Across Northern Europe, vegetable producers are having to halt their activities because of the crippling energy costs — required to heat greenhouses through the winter and keep harvests refrigerated, on top of rising transport and packaging costs. This further threatens food supplies.

In its attempt to reduce its dependence on Russian gas, the EU is increasing its reliance on supplies from countries like China and India — which, it would appear, are simply reselling to Europe gas that comes from… Russia (at a higher price, of course).

UKRAINE CAN NOT WIN.

We are being lied to with a fiction peddled in the Western Press.

We celebrate the military counteroffensive that was launched by Ukraine on 29 August 2022 to expel Russian forces occupying the southern regions of the Kherson oblasts.

Russia just pulled its troops out and parked them across the Dnieper River. No casualties – all their equipment was intact. Ukraine took the city after enduring fire and we all cheered – The Ukrainians immediately also had to evacuate that destroyed city.. since the Russians left only ruins.

Soviet military doctrine has always traded land for lives

On June 24 1812 Napoleon invaded Russia and the Russians traded lives for land even giving Napoleon Moscow itself as they fell back. Finding the city deserted Napoleon had to retreat. Of 600,000 men that invaded Russia only 100,000 made it home.

In WW2 the German advance again got to the gates of Moscow itself – as the Russians moved entire industries deep into Asia as they fell back – trading land for lives. Exhausted and depleted the Germans had to fall back …as the Russians finally rolled into Berlin.

The Ukrainians are being ground down, now making smaller attacks with fewer troops and fewer arms supplies, as the West has exhausted its arsenals.  Ukraine has limited men and materials. They do not have millions of men ….Russia does…and there are no more tanks and weapons to provide them. Nato has depleted its military stocks.  Russia can freeze the lines for a year or two if needed – Ukraine is bleeding out.

With no economy – no power and lights and internet – Ukraine's support fatigue among the Allies grows, as a new wave of refugees threatens to flood Europe.  The actual war is done…The allies need to stop the suffering.

Soon we will see the West scramble onto the last plane out of Kyiv, Kabul,  Siagon, or Bagdad and no one will ask what happened. We do not talk about US failures….

THE RISE OF NATIONALISM

In Europe, beggar-thy-neighbor policies aren’t an exception to the rule — they are the rule – as the wealthier nations try to protect their economies at the expense of their poorer neighbors. Capitalism at its finest.

The new leaders like Viktor Orbán and Georgia Meloni are only the beginning. Spain and Finland are set to head to the polls in 2023, and both elections could result in right-wing coalitions that would include far-right parties. Meanwhile, Belgium’s top two parties in current polling averages are far-right. Macron lost his majority in France. Poland’s governing right-wing Law and Justice party (PiS) still leads parliamentary elections.

When the pope starts speaking about potentially retiring, the world should listen. Francis is 85, the age Benedict was when he announced his retirement. When a papal vacancy occurs, the College of Cardinals often chooses a new pontiff to deal with problems it struggles with.  A strong new pope is needed to deal with a scandal-plagued Church and Papacy.

The coming social unrest will elect new leaders. The last economic depression of 1930 -1939 gave us these  “messiahs”  to save their countries...Tito, Franco, Tojo, Stalin, Mussolini, and Hitler. They also gave us WW2.  When massive unemployment, cold, and hunger strike, then people will ask for new leaders to deliver them.

We are sitting and watching prophecy ….not just reading it in the bible …but on the nightly news. God personally chose each of us to be here today in this time and place to serve His purpose.  Now we can pray Thy kingdom come. Come, Messiah, set up your government. No more hunger…No more war….No more refugees…No more corruption.

What a privilege!  What an honor to live at a time of chaos and the coming worldwide depression that gives rise to these new leaders.  We get to see the end of the movie ….the Trumpet will sound and the Calvary on a white horse will come over the hill,  to save us all.

Next week we can look at the coming  EU/NATO - Turkey split and Israel’s importance as a new Gas Exporter to Europe.

The Coming Famine

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1 - First came then droughts - We had a long-term drought in North America and Canada. Parts of Africa have been plagued by dry seasons growing hotter and rainy seasons arriving later and with less water for crops and livestock.

2 - Then came Covid with lockdowns and supply chain issues and sharply higher prices for fertilizer and seed.  The pandemic pushed 97 million more people into poverty in 2020, an unprecedented increase. Close to a billion worldwide suffered from hunger and malnutrition, with countries in Africa among the hardest hit.

More than 155 million people experienced acute food insecurity at crisis level or worse around the world in 2020, an increase of 20 million from 2019 and a five-year high, as the COVID-19 pandemic compounded economic shocks, conflicts, and climate and severe weather impacts estimate the 2021 Global Report on Food Crises. Pandemic-related food price increases put pressure on livelihoods, “As the prices go up and more people get pushed in poverty; After 2 years of pandemic lockdowns and supply chain delays the situation got worse in 2021. Wheat prices rose 70% in ONE month.

Somalia. Faced with ongoing political instability and civilian insecurity, as well as over a decade of droughts, Somalia ranks as the hungriest county in the world for 2021.

Here ae the numbers for 2020. .

Democratic Republic of Congo – 21.8 million people *

  • Yemen – 13.5 million people
  • Afghanistan – 13.2 million people
  • Syrian Arab Republic – 12.5 million people
  • Sudan – 9.6 million people
  • Nigeria – 9.2 million people
  • Ethiopia – 8.6 million people
  • South Sudan – 6.5 million people
  • Zimbabwe – 4.3 million people
  • Haiti – 4.1 million people

Now there in Afghanistan 22 million people face food shortages and hunger as that economy collapsed with the freezing of all their central bank reserves in the US. Their economy has been destroyed. The Yemen conflict has displaced over a million people and has led to Cholera outbreaks and medicine shortages and famine prompting the United Nations to call the humanitarian crisis the worst in the world.

3 - Finally came war in Ukraine.

Ukraine has long been called Europe's breadbasket thanks to its rich soil among the most versatile in the world. This region accounts for 15% of the world's wheat production and nearly 30% of its exports. Ukraine and Russia account for 80% of the world's sunflower oil.

Ukraine is ranked sixth in corn and sixth in barley and ninth in wheat and ninth in soybean production. Twenty-Six 26 countries in Africa are more than 50% dependent on Russia and Ukraine for their wheat imports. Benin and Egypt are over 80% dependent while Somalia is 100% dependent on those two countries for wheat...

No wonder 17 African countries chose to abstain from the UN vote sanctioning Russia. You cannot bite the hand that feeds you. With the Black Sea closed and exports frozen these countries are scrambling to find food. Egypt put out a tender to replace its wheat and the only country that had wheat to spare was Canada. The price was so high they canceled the tender. Now Indonesia Sri Lanka and Egypt are negotiating loans from the IMF to pay for food.

In response to the shortages, Egypt has banned the export of wheat flour and lentils while Indonesia has tightened exports of palm oil and Russia has temporarily banned any exports of both fertilizer and wheat.

China has managed to stockpile more than half of the globe's maize and other grains, leading to steep price increases across the planet and dropping more countries into famine. China is expected to have 69% of the globe's maize reserves in the first half of the crop year 2022, 60% of its rice, and 51% of its wheat.

They expect to have the worst crop in 40 years as flooding and other factors cut their harvests and have trouble feeding their population so making them a net importer.

The shortage and price increases in urea-based fertilizers may even have a greater impact. Ukraine Belorussia were all exporters. The price of urea has gone to $1000 per metric ton which is four times the price sold for 2021 you cannot grow fields of wheat barley or Soy without fertilizer. Farmers as far away as Mexico Columbia and Brazil are already worried about the shortages. Fuel costs are up, food prices are soaring, fertilizer is more expensive, and all of this feeds into new crises.

Next year is when this really hits the world. Hunger leads to desperation and discontent. Arab Spring of 2008 started in a market over prices. Popular riots are often associated with adverse economic trends: recession, rising unemployment and high prices or scarcity of food

In 2010, the chant was work, freedom, national dignity. Now the dream of a Tunisian is a gas canister. A piece of bread for his kids.”

So what is our response?

The bible tells us that Matthew 24:7, NLT: Nation will go to war against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world.

In Africa war has prevented the planting of crops and Russia Ukraine's conflict will certainly cripple their harvests and planting.

We that have enough to eat and more…….

  • Consider the local food bank for a regular donation of canned goods. It goes directly to the needy. Volunteer one evening a month to serve the less fortunate.
  • Support a local shelter.
  • Support an organization like Feed My Starving Children or Rise against Hunger

Most importantly – lift your voice in prayer.  This is the hope of ALL mankind. Your prayers can call on God to bring it soon…

Micah 4 v 1-4 But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the government of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,  and He will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths:   And He shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares neither shall they learn war any more.  But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken it. 

Holodomor and Holocaust – A Ukraine Story

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With armies surrounding the Ukraine one should look back at their history. There has been enough pain and suffering for any nation.

Ukraine is a Texas-sized nation to the west of Russia. It was part of the Soviet Union and ruled by Stalin. He imposed collectivization which replaced individually owned farms with state-run collectives. Ukraine small farmers resisted giving up their lands and livelihoods and were considered enemies of the state. Soviet officials drove these farmers off their farms and deported 50,000 Ukrainian families to Siberia.

1932 the grain harvest missed the planner's target by 60%. There may have been enough food to get by. Stalin ordered their small crops to be confiscated as punishment for not meeting quotas. Much of the confiscated grain was sold overseas as proof of the success of collectivization. By 1933 only 1/3 of the households were left while prisons and labor camps were jammed and many were deported.

The Ukrainian famine was a clear case of a man-made famine. It was a hybrid caused by terrible social-economic policies and one aimed at a particular population group as repression and punishment. This Ukrainian famine became known as the Holodomor a combination of the Ukrainian words for “starvation” and to inflict “death” It claimed the lives of 3.9 million people or about 13% of the population with horrific stories of the terrible agony of death by starvation.

The Holocaust of World War II also started in Ukraine. One in every four Jewish victims of the Holocaust was murdered in Ukraine. The number of Ukrainians that collaborated with the Germans amounted to about 100,000. They joined police units and their auxiliaries, and lent a hand rounding up the Jews, for the mass shootings.

Before the death camps of Poland, killing squads called Einsatzgruppen A B C D of about 1500 men each fanned out over the East behind the front lines. They were only successful because of the Ukrainian police that supported their efforts. In just one suburb of Kyiv, 34,000 Jews were murdered on September 29 – 30, 1941 at Babi Yar shot and buried in a large Ravine. It only took 2 days. A total of 100,000 were murdered in and around Kyiv.

Ironically the Nazis decided that shooting women and children individually was inefficient and took an emotional toll on the soldiers. A more productive, method of extermination was needed, hence the industrial death camps and the gas chambers.

By the time the killing centers opened at Birkenau, Treblinka, Sobibor, Belzec, and Majdanek, more than 1.5 million Jews had already been murdered by the Germans, their Axis allies, and local collaborators in Ukraine, Belarus. Today there are some 2000 mass graves within Ukraine ranging in size from a few dozen victims, to tens of thousands.

Vasily Grossman was a Jewish Soviet writer from Ukraine. He wrote for the Soviet Ministries newspaper called the Red Star when he learned of the massacres in Ukraine. In despair, because he had no news from his mother, he wrote in an article…. There are no Jews in Ukraine. In the big cities, in the small towns, in the thousands of villages, you won't see a young girl's black eyes filled with tears, you won't hear an old woman's voice racked with mourning, and you won't hear a hungry baby's cry. Everything is silent. Everything is peaceful. A whole people have been massacred.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Ukraine finally became an independent nation—and for some the Holodomor and others, the Holocaust remains a painful part of Ukrainians’ common identity.

Now surrounded by armies and not part of NATO - they will again be abandoned to an uncertain future.  This crisis may be the event that prompts Europe to awaken to her own vulnerability and weakness.

I expect a new order and leadership in Europe. Nationalism, trade war, sanctions, and U.S. interference will not be economically beneficial to our allies. The economic fallout from the coming collapse will forge new alliances. These conditions will mirror the 1930’s and they gave us Franco, Tito, Tojo, Mussolini, Stalin, and Hitler.  It was Europe that dragged the world into war…Twice. The third time is a charm.

Europe will change this year.

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Donald Trump the 45th president of the United States does not offer Europe choices or loopholes. He simply turns the page and announces a new world order where America is first, strong, secure, prosperous and proud.  Nato is obsolete and America is no longer paying for Europe’s defense.

Europe is advised. Donald Trump means it. It will force Europe to wake up from its quiet life reorganize and come to grips with new rules, new treaties and new problems. The new presidency comes at the worst time with elections in France and Germany, Netherlands scheduled this year. The Brexit decision appears to be finalized when it passed overwhelmingly in parliament.

However, there are other long-standing problems that have resurfaced. France’s far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen called on voters across Europe to “wake up” and follow the example of US and British voters. “2016 was the year the Anglo-Saxon world woke up. I am certain 2017 will be the year when the people of continental Europe wake up.”

Grexit was coined long before Brexit.  European creditors need to approve the second round of Greece’s bailout. The money is critical for Athens to repay $6 billion due in July. Senior EU officials said there has not been enough progress for the finance ministers to approve a deal. The government has been sent back to the drawing board to find new spending cuts and revenue. Greece has been facing a deep economic crisis for nearly a decade now, with public debt more than tripling compared to the prior crisis figures. In January, a confidential report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is one of the main creditors for Athens, said that the country is likely to face an “explosive” surge in public debt with only significant debt relief capable of easing the situation. There is small hope that an agreement can be reached by February 20th before the next Euro group meeting. Officials in Athens are not optimistic. There is resistance against any further austerity. The calls to dump the Euro and return to the Drachma are getting louder.

Britains Prime Minister May has pledged to invoke the so-called Article 50 that kicks off the Brexit process in March. Once Article 50 is triggered, there is no turning back. So analysts expect more volatility in stocks and currencies.

Also in March, the Dutch head to the polls for elections. Prime Minister Mark Rutte is coming under pressure after his Justice minister resigned. The populace leader of the far-right Freedom Party, Geert Wilders, holds strong anti-immigrant and anti-E.U.  views. This has made him a strong candidate in the upcoming election.  His victory could put the Netherlands on a path to leave the Eurozone. Analysts, however, expect a more mainstream party to form a coalition without him…..but that is what they predicted for the American elections.

In April or May, the French also go to the polls. Given the scandal surrounding the French president, the Nationalist Front Marine Le Pen has made gains in the polls. She is hoping for a similar political shakeup in France and an end to the country’s membership of the Eurozone. This would be a fatal blow to the shared currency project. Le Pen has taken the lead in several polls but isn’t expected to win the election.

Italy isn’t slated to hold another election until 2018. But analysts have started to brace for a June ballot because the country’s court last week struck down the 2015 election law passed by the former Prime Minister Renzi.  That would add to an already unstable landscape in Italy after Renzi stepped down in December following the referendum defeat on a constitutional reform plan. Of all the major EU members,  Italy poses the most significant political risk in 2017. Italy no longer has a center-right alternative to the current governing party that makes the country more vulnerable. The populist five-star movement has gained popularity and a win for them would be feared to put Italy on the path out of the Eurozone.

The stable heavyweight of the European economy is Germany. They are headed to the polls on September 24. Analysts are speculating that Angela Merkel could hold on to the leadership despite her popularity being marred by terrorist attacks,  immigration issues, and rising inflation. Germany’s social Democrats have chosen Mark Shultz, the popular ex-president of the E.U. to stand against Merkel. He has promised to make the election exciting and focus on the hard working people.

I expect new leadership in Europe. Nationalism, trade war and U.S. isolation will not be economically beneficial to our trading partners. These conditions will mirror the 1930’s and they gave us Franco, Tito, Tojo, Mussolini, Stalin, and Hitler.  It was Europe that dragged the world into war…Twice. Third time is a charm.

70 nations gather to defy God.

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70 nations were the families of Gen 10 after the Flood. They are the descendants of Noah and his three sons.

70 Disciples/Apostles correspond to the 70 Nations of the World.  Luke 10 v 1 after these things the LORD appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, where he himself would come.

After all, the 70 Elders Moses appointed also represent judges and rules over the mixed multitude Number 11 v 17 The LORD said to Moses: “Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Have they come to the tent of meeting that they may stand there with you?

These 70 Elders would eventually become the 70 that sat on the Sanhedrin in Yeshua’s day. – Seventy leaders of Israel were standing there with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan in the center. Each of them held an incense burner, from which a cloud of incense rose above their heads. Ezekiel 8 v 11

That during Sukkot (Feast of Nations) 70 bulls were sacrificed on behalf of the 70 Nations if you add up all of the bullocks offered over the seven days, they total seventy.  And if we go to the table of nations in Genesis, after the dispersion of the Tower of Babel, we find that humanity was divided into seventy basic families or nations.

Now the 70 nations of the world again gather to defy the God of Israel.

On Sunday, January 15th, 2017 Foreign Ministers and other diplomats from some 70 different countries have descended on Paris, with the intent to renew peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.  These were led by John Kerry Secretary of State for the United States and  French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Marc Ayrault.

The summit, which opened Sunday without leaders from either side of the conflict, is expected to urge the establishment of a Palestinian state. “We are here to reiterate strongly that the two-state solution is the only one possible,” said French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, in his opening remarks to top envoys at the conference.  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to attend, decrying the conference as biased against Israel from the outset.

Just a week and half before the Security Council vote, U.K. Prime Minster May delivered a speech overflowing with praise and support for Israel. Addressing the Conservative Friends of Israel, the prime minister hailed the Jewish state as “a remarkable country” and “a beacon of tolerance.”

Ties with Jerusalem were “crucial,” she said, promising to raise the bilateral trade relationship to new heights and describing the Balfour Declaration as “one of the most important letters in history.” Britain broke with the 70 and chose not sign the resolutions passed in Paris.

Nevertheless, international pressure on Israel to carve up the Holy Land like a Thanksgiving turkey continues to build following President Obama’s May 2011 speech calling for Israel to withdraw to the 1967 borders.

Nearly every world leader — and certainly every American president since the Six Day War — has demanded Israel give up significant amounts of territory within Judea, Samaria, and the Golan Heights in order to create a sovereign Palestinian state and make peace with Syria, but never this much territory. The Obama plan would force Israel to give it all up, to divide Jerusalem, and return to indefensible borders.

The recent United Nations Security Council resolution 2334 was a radical reversal of 30 years of US support for Israel in the U.N.  This resolution declared Jewish housing in Judea, Samaria, and East Jerusalem to be illegal. Israel fears the outcome of the Paris conference will certainly be biased against them.

A two-state solution would call for Israel to relinquish territories conquered in the 1967 Six-Day War and subsequently, create a Palestinian State. This would include establishing a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem, thereby removing the Kotel (Western Wall) and the Temple Mount from Jewish control.

It is unclear whether the 800,000 Jews living over the 1949 Armistice Lines, comprising approximately 13 percent of Israel’s Jewish population, will be required to relocate.

I find it interesting that those 70 are now scheming to divide what God calls His – Joel 3:2, the Lord says: “I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. Then I will enter into judgment with them there on behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; and they have divided up My land.” 

 

Merkel, the last man standing.

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Germany prepares to split with America. European politicians doubt Donald Trump will become a mature statesman.

Merkel is preparing for the worst. The New York Times called her “the last powerful defender of Europe and the trans-Atlantic alliance.” She is the last man defending a dying vision.  She stands for election a fourth time after 11 years in power.  She faces a difficult election and with 1.5 million new refugees in 2015, her popularity has been damaged by terrorism.

Each terror incident does pose electoral challenges for some of Europe’s leading pillars of unity like Merkel. Terror attacks in France and Germany do provide ammunition for right-wing leaders who want to go beyond simple bans on immigration from the Middle East. The National Front and their supporters want nothing less than a dissolution of the European Union and a return to pull-up-the-drawbridge nationalism for their individual nations.

A new rival to Merkel is Edmund Stoiber. He flatly rejects that Islam is a part of Germany. What makes him an interesting candidate is he appears to walk in the footsteps of his mentor, Franz Josef Strauss.  Stoiber called Strauss ‘the father of the people’s party’ and ‘the greatest political son of Bavaria.’” In the article, Stoiber wrote, “He was a Bavarian in the heart of Germany and European in vision. The modern people’s party was embodied in Franz Josef Strauss. … For me, he remains a teacher and fatherly friend” It was Strauss that wrote The Grand Design: a European solution to German unification. He led during Germany’s rise to power in Europe.

German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel called for Salafist mosques to be banned and their communities broken up.   “On this question, I am for zero tolerance,” the German official told Der Spiegel in an interview, commenting on the links between the Christmas market truck attacker and a Salafist preacher.

Gabriel was referring to Salafist preacher Abu Walaa, who was arrested in November along with others for recruiting people in Germany on behalf of the terrorist group Islamic State. Truck attack suspect Anis Amri, who killed 12 people at a Berlin Christmas market, is believed to have communicated with the cleric.   Salafism is growing fast in Germany, flourishing on grants and other forms of support from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations. Gabriel says Germany should fight radical forms of Islam on its own soil.  Gabriel leads to the Social Democrats (SPD), a coalition ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU). He is expected to run for chancellor this year against his current boss.

The cost of assimilating all those refugees and the strain on public services and welfare programs are beginning to mount up. Germans are also troubled at the cultural and religious influence of so many Muslims. Vladimir Putin is deeply troubling to Eastern Europeans.

The refugees are a burden on the country. They will move into apartments that are already in short supply in some cities. They will present a challenge to teachers because children who speak no German will enter the school system. A study by the Nuremberg-based Institute for Employment Research found that 13 percent of new arrivals in 2013 had a university degree, with almost one in four having at least a high school diploma.  Still, the largest group of newcomers, some 58 percent, has no occupational training whatsoever. If the country wants to avoid the mistakes made in the past, these people must quickly be given training. That will be one of the largest tasks in the coming years.

Europe has responded to the crisis with organised irresponsibility. Italy and Greece allow asylum-seekers to continue their journeys, despite the Dublin Regulation, which requires that refugees apply for asylum where they first enter the EU. It is a system that has allowed countries like Germany and France to ignore the true dimensions of the problem for years. As long as the refugees are headed to the Scandinavian countries in the North, they are not Germany’s present problem. The whole eurozone faces economic and financial collapse driven by ageing demographics and slow economic growth. Merkel has faced angry mobs calling her a traitor.  Right-wing parties in Denmark are seeking to clamp down on the number of people coming in, while Hungary is pushing ahead with plans to build a 13-foot-high barbed-wire fence along its border with Serbia, despite criticism from its European Union partners.

The Czech government has defended the right of the police to detain illegal migrants. Last week, its president, Milos Zeman, responded to a revolt among migrants held in a guarded facility by saying, “No one invited you here,” and, “If you don’t like it, leave.”

The Interior Ministry in Germany recorded 202 attacks on housing for asylum-seekers, including attempts to render shelters uninhabitable through arson, attacks with stones or other vandalism. A group called Courage Against the Right cites 48 attacks on individuals, based on local police records.

I wrote in an earlier article, we are entering the age of the strongmen. We will elect the same type of men, in conditions that are very similar to the 1930’s. Brexit, Trump, the swing to the right in European politics are all a logical outcome of the failed policies of globalism and failed attempts to export democracy to the Middle East.

The move to the Right will have huge consequences. The last time the world looked to the Right to solve their problems – the choices were Franco, Tito, Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin. We have learned nothing from history, so we will repeat it.

Turkey will leave N.A.T.O.

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Since the coup attempt that killed 270 people Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has turned a democracy into his autocracy.  The purges in Turkey now makes the McCarthy era during the 1950’s look like a picnic.

A total of 2740 judges and prosecutors have been detained while 4,897 State employees were fired, and 76,567 State workers were suspended.  The military lost 3000 arrested with officers leaving the country to seek asylum in the West.

In Turkey it is not the Communists being hunted but the Gulenists….to date over 40, 360 suspected Gulenists have been detained.  The irony is that Fethullah Gulen, the Turkish preacher, and writer has supported President Erdogan’s rise to power.

During his early years as President after a history of military Coups in Turkey,  Erdogan used to call the widely circulated Gulenist owned newspaper “Zaman” as the “guardians of democracy in Turkey.”   In 2013 those same papers would expose the corruption of Erdogan regime. After the failed coup of July 2016 all Gulenists were labeled terrorists.

There is virtually no independent media left in Turkey with 160 media outlets shut and 108 journalists detained. His threat to bring back the death penalty has alarmed the EU members – as the EU does not allow the death penalty in its member states.

Ankara began its formal accession talks with the EU in 2005. In March 2016, the sides have reached what seemed like a landmark deal, when sealing a joint plan to combat the migration crisis. Ankara promised it would assist the EU in dealing with the influx of migrants in exchange for some funding and also to potential ease the process through which Turkey could gain EU accession and visa-free travel within the Schengen Zone for its citizens.

But despite plans to introduce the visa-free agreement in July, it has so far been postponed, with the EU authorities saying Turkey has failed to comply with all of the EU’s 72 criteria. Ankara’s tough anti-terrorism legislation, especially criticized by Brussels, is the main stumbling block.

Erdogan blasted Merkel, “Germany thinks that they are a first class country, a first class democracy and that Turkey is second class. We want them to treat us as equal partners.”  German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it was “highly alarming” that “freedom of the press and speech are being restricted [in Turkey] again and again,” and provided the example of the arrest of at least 13 editors and editors in chief of the Cumhuriyet newspaper.

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas said that Berlin would not extradite suspects to Turkey if they were facing political charges, with the only exception being evidence of “classic criminal activity” presented by Ankara.

Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu announced that people in Turkey no longer wanted the EU membership. The official said the government is under “huge pressure” to abandon its plans to join the EU bloc of 28 nations, which is being accused of “double standards.”  “We are under huge pressure to stop the negotiating process,” Cavusoglu said at a Strategic Forum in Slovenia.

Turkey has since strengthened ties to Russia and it appears its bid for E.U. membership is slipping further and further away.    Ankara’s large dependence on Moscow’s energy and tourism make this inevitable. Turkey’s constitution is shaped by Sharia law which is incompatible with Europe liberal thought.  Turkey (NATO’s 2nd largest military power) is also gravitating towards Russia on the Syrian issue.  This is reducing her ties with the U.S., as Russia continues to fuel tensions in NATO.  Moscow could split NATO apart.

Her future loyalties will lie with Russia and the Middle East and not with Europe. As Russia enlarges her influence in the Middle East, Europe and America will find themselves sidelined. The U.S. wasn’t even invited to a meeting held in Moscow between Russian, Turkish and Iranian officials who discussed solutions to the Syrian war. Turkey is prophesied to be a part of the nine (9) nations including Russia that will ultimately invade Northern Israel. Ezekiel 38 and 39 are future events. That separates her future from Europe. 

Rise of the European Right

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The Trump victory after the Brexit decision in Britain has shown the way for the right-wing populist parties across Europe. They believe their time has come and they share Trump’s themes – a hard line on immigration, a distrust of trade deals, a defense of traditional values and a suspicion of international organizations and international elites. Voter dissatisfaction with mainstream established political parties is at a record high.

More than half a century after the Second World War, the West is sliding toward a resurgence of far-right political movements that could make the 1930s pale in comparison.

A new report funded by the German Federal Foreign Office reveals that public support for far-right political parties in Europe has risen exponentially since 1999, resulting in record wins in the European Parliament. An analysis of the report’s data suggests that far-right parties are poised to take a third of all seats in the next round of European elections in 2019.

Currently in the opposition in the Dutch Parliament, Mr. Wilders’ anti-immigrant Party for Freedom is set to make big gains in next year’s election that could earn it a seat in the Dutch government.

Poland’s right-wing Law and Justice Party roared back into the government by winning 39 percent of the national vote in the 2015 parliamentary elections. The party was founded in 2001 by Lech Kaczynski and his identical twin, Jaroslaw. Law and Justice first won power in 2005. Lech became president and Jaroslaw, eventually, his prime minister. In 2010, Lech Kaczynski and much of Poland’s top leadership died in a plane crash while landing at an airport near Smolensk, Russia. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who was not on the plane, is now leading Poland’s shift rightward as the party leader

In Hungary,  Viktor Orban and his right-wing Fidesz party, running on a joint list with the K.D.N.P., a Christian Democratic party, have won the last two parliamentary elections, worrying many Western leaders about his increasingly authoritarian rule. The party also decisively won in voting for the European Parliament in May 2014. Jobbik, a far-right, anti-immigration, populist and economic protectionist party won 20 percent of the vote in parliamentary elections in 2014, making it Hungary’s third-largest party.

The far-right Sweden Democrats party, which has disavowed its roots in the white-supremacist movement, won about 13 percent of the vote in elections in September 2014, which gave it 49 of the 349 seats in Parliament.  Because none of the mainstream parties would form a coalition with the Sweden Democrats, which is led by Jimmie Akesson, the country is governed by a shaky minority coalition of Social Democrats and the Green Party. The Sweden Democrats’ platform calls for heavily restricting immigration, opposes allowing Turkey to join the European Union and seeks a referendum on European Union membership.

Founded in 1980, the neofascist party Golden Dawn in Greece came to international attention in 2012 when it entered the Greek Parliament for the first time, winning 18 seats. The election results came amid the country’s debilitating debt crisis and resulting austerity measures. The party, which the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner described in 2013 as “neo-Nazi and violent,” holds extreme anti-immigrant views, favors a defense agreement with Russia and said the euro “turned out to be our destruction.”

In France, the National Front is a nationalist party that uses populist rhetoric to promote its anti-immigration and anti-European Union positions. The party favors protectionist economic policies and would clamp down on government benefits for immigrants, including health care, and drastically reduce the number of immigrants allowed into France. The party was established in 1972; its founders and sympathizers included former Nazi collaborators and members of the wartime collaborationist Vichy regime. The National Front is now led by Marine Le Pen, who took over from her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, in 2011.

The far-right Alternative for Germany party started three years ago as a protest movement against the euro currency, won up to 25 percent of the vote in German state elections in March, challenging Germany’s consensus-driven politics. The party failed to win seats in the German Parliament in 2013 by narrowly missing the 5 percent threshold, but is now polling at 10 percent to 12 percent and is expected to be the first right-wing party to enter the Parliament since the end of World War II. Support for the party shot up after the New Year’s Eve sexual assaults in Cologne. The party “attracted voters who were anti-establishment, anti-liberalization, anti-European, anti-everything that has come to be regarded as the norm.

The stage is being set for the new leaders of the future. When resources are strained and the people demand answers, they elect leaders that promise results. Political correctness and globalization will give way to extremism. Individual rights will be sacrificed for the greater good.

The last time the world looked to the Right to solve their problems – the choices were Franco, Tito, Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin. We have learned nothing from history, so we will repeat it.

 

 

 

Why did Trump Win?

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Four years ago, Donald Trump declared that the U.S. Electoral College system of picking presidents “is a disaster for a democracy;” now he is headed to the White House because of it. How did Donald Trump beat 16 Republican candidates in 56 primaries despite their every effort to stop him?

The facts are – 77% of the electorate are women , people of color and young adults under the age of 35 and still the Trump Juggernaut rolled on to victory. He won ….despite being outspent 2-1 in campaign fundraising….despite a smaller staff…..despite being reviled by his own party and the media…despite his own flaws and offending every minority group and scaring our international partners……….

These factors put Trump over the top…
When Lorianne S. 27, walked into her Michigan polling location last Tuesday, election experts and pundits may have thought Loriann S. — a white woman with a college degree in a light blue state — would be pulling the lever for Hillary Clinton.  But people like Loriann S. across the Rust Belt were poised to deliver one of the most shocking upsets in American political history.

“[Donald] Trump’s policies on tax reform and his promise to bring jobs back made a lot of sense to me,” she said. She acknowledged that she was “disturbed” with Trump’s language about women, but it wasn’t enough to tip the scales toward Clinton. “I wanted her to be real,” Lorianne said. “All of her words about women’s rights and standing up for women sounded hollow to me.” Trump won Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin on Election Day, in addition to North Carolina and Florida on his way to the White House.

The Midwest Brexit..….The traditional democratic states Michigan-Ohio Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have seen their manufacturing plants move to Mexico. Trump correctly blamed Bill Clinton and NAFTA for destroying the Middle Class there. He threatened to slap tariffs on Ford if they moved another plant to Mexico….and tried to ship their vehicles back to the USA. It was music to the ears of the nobodies that had taken the brunt of 20 years of globalization and free trade.

The demographics of the Brexit voters were the same….white voters over the age of 45 who remembered once being part of a vanishing middle class in England,  as in the U.S.A…

• before the banks took their houses with crooked loans
• before the company closed their plant to move it to Mexico
• before the Obama Health Care Plan mailed out 50% premium hikes weeks before the election.

Those were the determined voters who would not be denied and came to the voting booth to vote for the one man who the banks, the companies, the politicians, and the media hated most. Donald J. Trump. He was their only legal human Molotov cocktail to throw at the forces of the “collective Elite” that had robbed them of a way of life…

Trump spoke to these voters — whether it was on policy with how he blew up the Republican message on trade and Clinton’s ties to the establishment and pro-globalist agenda; or his fueling white resentments and racial bias; and there was likely some degree of sexism that played a role.

Trump was the last stand of the angry white male. They turned out to vote….40 million of them. And like Minnesota where the voters put a professional Wrestler (Jerry Ventura) in the governor’s office convinced that he could upend the status quo. These voters knew that their man (Trump) was not bought and paid for and was universally hated by the very elite who had destroyed their middle class.

Hillary had problems.…. She was hugely unpopular — nearly 70% of all voters thought she was untrustworthy and dishonest. She represented the old way of politics, not really believing in anything other than what can get you elected. That’s why she fought against gays getting married one moment, and the next she was officiating a gay marriage. The email scandals and the sabotage of Bernie Sanders did not help her cause. The late-in-the-campaign letter from FBI Director James Comey about Clinton’s emails likely also played a role, reinforcing a narrative about her as untrustworthy especially with voters who were prone to believe the worst about her.

And so the new divide between Red and Blue states is not social policy but the new divide is economic policy. It was and will always be the “It’s the economy stupid”… And as long as workers suffer and feel marginalized by the elite….they will vote their pain. Given the problems we face are insurmountable – the solutions we reach for are going to be more and more extreme.